With You
by Once-upon-a-writer2176
Summary: Kirito comforts Asuna as she wishes she was back in the real world. (Before Yui).
1. Chapter 1

"Switch!" Asuna's white shoes clicked against the hard stone pavement as she ran towards the giant plant monster.

"I hear ya!" Kirito backed off and let Asuna take over. She charged at the monster full speed, pulling out her shining sword. She sliced off the monster's vines, only angering it. When the monster attempted another attack with its only remaining vine Asuna swiftly jumped on top of it and ran along it like a tightrope and once at the center of its head, shoved the sword through its skull.

The familiar sound of the defeat echoed in her ears when she jumped down. Her cape swished from side to side when she spun around to see the shards of code floating off, slowly disappearing and dissolving into thin air. Asuna swiped her hand down and checked the box to get the prize the monster dropped; Basil and Parsley, treasured and very rare spices in SAO.

"Good job, now we finally have something to put on dinner." Kirito sweetly smiled at Asuna.

"Ya, I'm sick of eating nothing but bread or unseasoned fish." She stuck out her tongue and elbowed Kirito in the side. "Let's get back home, that fish we caught yesterday is calling my name!" The wind rustled up some leaves around Asuna when she ran down the path back towards their home.

"Hey save some for me!" Kirito fingered the hilt of his sword and chased after Asuna. He licked his lips longingly, with every step he came closer to home, the more his stomach grumbled for food. Thankfully Asuna's food skill was high enough so she could cook fish and not burn it unlike almost all of the other players in SAO who had undesirably low cooking skills and couldn't even chop vegetables correctly.

Kirito threw his jacket that went down past his knees on the couch and slammed into the table in his rush to sit down. He got his utensils ready for the food and eagerly awaited. Asuna chopped up the basil and parsley and threw it into a bowl and mashed it with a thick granite stick. She tossed it into another bowl with some butter and stirred that around as well.

The remaining parsley and basil was stored away in tiny glass jars up in the cupboard for later. Asuna took the fish out of the oven and slathered it with the butter and spices. Kirito could smell dinner from the other room and his mouth watered.

"Dinner is served!" Asuna handed the plate to Kirito and set one down on her side too. Kirito didn't bother to use his knife to cut up the fish; instead he stuck his fork into the center of his dinner and ate it all in three bites.

"That was amazing." He wiped his mouth with a white napkin Asuna placed out for him, knowing he wasn't the cleanest man.

"Glad you liked it." She took the last bite of her salmon before taking both plates away to clean them. "So, when do you think we should get back to the front lines?" Asuna could feel the mood instantly become negative as the words "the front lines" left her mouth. The front lines were almost like a bad fairytale; brutal, deadly, something you would tell children so they wouldn't stray too far from their homes.

And true it was deadly, unless you were an experienced player with insane sword, speed, and accuracy skills. Luckily for Asuna and Kirito their skills were tremendously high in all three areas. "The front lines?" Kirito jumped on the couch and laid down, taking up all space.

"Yes." Asuna sat down on the edge of the couch.

"I… Didn't think we were in such a rush to get back." Kirito plaid with her let down hair.

"We aren't but… While living in this game isn't all that bad, I do want to get back to Japan eventually. And the only way to get out of here is to clear all the floors." She laid on top of him, cradeling his face.

"I suppose you're right but…" He looked away silently.

"Us being in the game is better than being in the real world? I know." She bit her thumb for a moment, thinking. "But I still don't want to stay here forever."

"Why not? I mean we're happy here. We're married and everything is great. And what if we get back home and your father doesn't approve of us?" Kirito kissed her forehead.

"I wouldn't care what my father says; nothing can keep you away from me." She nuzzled the side of his face. "But don't you want to get back to the real world, get married for real. Have children-"

"Whoa what!" Kirito jumped back and hit his head on the arm rest of the couch. "You're seventeen and I'm sixteen." Kirito rubbed his head.

"Yes, but eventually. We can't exactly have children in a virtual world." She tapped his nose and then kissed it.

"But there are orphanages here, we could always adopt." He suggested while keeping his voice very soft.

"But I want my own child, not someone else's." She sat up and hugged herself, feeling a few tears start to spill out. Kirito sighed; there was nothing he could say to that.

"Fine, we return to the front lines in… two weeks… I still want some more vacation time alone with you…" He pulled her back closer to himself and rubbed his fingers over her wedding band. "Deal?" Kirito pulled her over for and kiss but let her go quickly for her answer. "Deal." She wrapped her arms around him tightly.


	2. Chapter 2

**So before you read this, let me say THIS IS NOT MINE... It is my friend's I did write the first chapter but my friend took an interest in SAO and decided to write a follow up and she said I could post this on my channel... She has her own channel called spade-of-hearts I believe (hopefully I got that correct) and you should go check her out. She's a really amazing writer. Anyway... All I really did with this chapter is straighten out a few plot things because she hasn't seen the entire anime. But other than that COMPLETELY HERS. So, now you may read now that I got that out of the way... Enjoy!**

Asuna rolled over on the hard wooden floor of she and Kirito's small hut, feeling the roughly carved wooden planks, rudely placed, under her fingers. Kirito let out a short breath of air next to her, then curled up on his side, hugging the long jacket he wore so often closer to his body.

Stretching lazily, Asuna tugged at the tail of his coat. "Up, lazy. We have to go to the market and get food." Their food supply had been steadily dwindling over the weeks. Kirito groaned and pulled the charcoal-black collar over his face, barely shielding his eyes. "Noooo…" He moaned. Asuna stood and walked to the table, picking up the glasses and plates they had ignored last night, brushing flecks of salmon not yet expired to the floor. In the moment she remembered wanting a pet in the real world, who would have eagerly ran for the scraps of food and licked them up in an instant. "Do you think we can tame one of the wolves?" she mused, and Kirito, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, looked at her strangely. "What?"

"Never mind." Asuna brushed off her coat, similar in length to Kirito's, and frowned. "The armor on this is getting worn. Think we can spiff it up at a blacksmith's?" She turned to Kirito for his approval.

"What?" He echoed, and she shook her head, hair swishing back and forth across her neck.

"I'm just not going to talk to you in the mornings. You don't listen."

"Do too!" Kirito retorted, then picked up his sword from the floor, admiring its blade as it caught the light.

"Weapons still in good shape?" Asuna called, offhandedly, over her shoulder.

"Yep," Kirito replied, then swung his sword, "Almost as good as new." Asuna had gotten her sword from Lizbeth, a lovely weapon at that, and it suited her – the grip and weight were perfect for her statistics – then again, that was surely no accident.

"So, what to do today?" Kirito inquired as Asuna cleaned up the house, practicing some basic sword maneuvers so as not to turn the living space into ashes.

"Do you never listen? We have to get food!"

"Oh. Right." The teenagers laughed for a moment, then looked at each other. "Why don't we take on some more monsters?" The suggestion that was on both of their minds was finally answered.

"We just did yesterday, though." Asuna said, but only for the sake of arguing. Kirito crossed the distance between them in a few quick strides, then took the girl's hands.

"Yeah I guess you're right." He smiled and Asuna gave him a questioning look. "We're at the top of our game, Asuna. We can do this. You know we can. One day we're going to get out of this hellish game -" Asuna couldn't help but smiling. He was right after all. Everyday they were getting closer to winning. "Wouldn't that be something. Getting out of this game after so long."

"Kirito… If we get too cocky we could die out there. You have a family, and so do I, and…"

"I know. Out of all of the things he could have done to make this game a nightmare he had to make it so if we died... No regenerating." Asuna turned her face away from Kirito's, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"And what bothers me the most is... Just… Some of these kids are innocent. They shouldn't have to be facing this. The possibility of never seeing their families again. It's just... Horrible." She squeezed her eyes shut. "And this game is VR. But all the memories we make here are in VR! It just makes me feel like nothing here is real!" Asuna voice rose to a shout, and, to her surprise, tears sparkled in her eyes.

"All the things that happen here, all that we do… We carry that back into the real world. Every injury, every death, every moment… If you died… I would have to face that in the real world. That I had a part in killing you. That I could have saved you." Asuna took a sharp breath in. Kirito would be gone. I can't lose him, she thought. Not after that scare with the laughing coffin member.

"Hey, hey." Kirito murmured soothingly, cupping his hand gently around Asuna's cheek. "I didn't mean to upset you. It's just that we could do this. You don't want anyone else to die? You want this to end? What if that's our job? Not the Knights of the Blood Oath, not anyone's. Ours. We could save them." Asuna shook her head, then met Kirito's eyes, smiling slightly.

"Well, we're not saving SAO on an empty stomach. Come on I'm starving." Asuna sidestepped Kirito's frame and picked up a small satchel, tossing it at the boy. "You have to carry it."

"What? A man satchel? I have honor, Asuna!" Kirito cried out in disbelief, but the girl was already out the door. "Hey! Asuna! Asuna, wait!"

The two made good time running to the Floor two town, filled with tall, multi-story buildings and a thriving community. A few giggly girls with incredibly weak stats winked and waved at Kirito as he and Asuna walked past, and Asuna made sure to tread on his shoe as they entered the market square.

"If you get any ideas, mister, I will use every skill I have to beat the life out of you." She growled, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Says the girl who was moments ago about to cry over my life." Kirito smirked deviously at the strawberry blonde girl and she scowled at him. "Just joking…" He muttered quietly.

The market was a huge outdoor square, filled with tents and shades and merchandise of every kind. A few small smithies and repair stores shouted to the two warriors, advertising free polishing and extra stat bonuses if you used a certain finish on your new blade. Kirito and Asuna's eyes, however, were all for the food. A respectable portion of the market was dedicated to just this, so food wouldn't be a problem itself. Bargaining was.

They first passed the fruit stand, where the merchant, who was new, sold them a half dozen apples at Kirito's first offer, a total rip-off. "You are ruthless." Asuna commented as she bit into the sweet fruit, and Kirito shrugged. "It comes from all of the battles."

Meat was the hardest to acquire, and Kirito and Asuna mostly got their raw meats from hunts. True to fashion, to meat stall was buzzing with people, but no buyers. Kirito let out a bark of a laugh when he saw the exorbitant prices for even rat meat.

"Anything for the young lass?" The meat merchant was a greasy, heavy man, with a bloody apron draped like a fashionable garment across his chest. He was so large that the stained cloth barely traveled past his waist. Asuna smirked at him, fiddling imposingly with her coat, making sure he could see her high rank.

"Not with those prices. You'll have to sell a dozen CPUs into slavery to get a smear of rat meat." The merchant scoffed, looking astounded that Asuna could insult his fine products, but she ignored his actions and gestured for Kirito to follow her.

The shopping trip, if you could call it that, was a success, with Kirito striking a few good trades and Asuna many more. The man-satchel was stuffed full of delicious smelling goodies that wafted a tantalizing aroma towards the townspeople, who were busy quibbling over goods of their own. Asuna saw a few village kids, maybe CPUs, which had taken to following them, noses held aloft, smelling the air greedily.

"Thieves?" Kirito asked, watching the children warily. Asuna shrugged. "Probably not. They look good enough." Kirito rolled his eyes, but stopped staring down the shabby kids. "I could be a thief, and I look positively saintlike." Walking faster, Asuna sped ahead of Kirito, leaving him to jog to keep up.

They made their way out of town with little trouble. A few bystanders commented in easily audible but apparently hushed tones about the two warriors and their ranks. Kirito straightened his coat and held his head high, looking very superior, before Asuna hit him in the arm and told him to knock it off. "The only fans you'll get this way is the girls." She hissed. Sure enough, a gaggle of teenagers had taken to following the two, along with the scruffy-looking kids, and made no action to deny it. A few even had the audacity to point.

When Asuna and Kirito reached the city limits their fan club dwindled away. Kirito waved a hand at their retreating backs, disgusted.

"Look at them. Scared to leave the city, the lot of them. I don't blame them though." Asuna reached out a hand and touched Kirito's arm softly, mellowing his dark mood.

"So tomorrow... Maybe we should do a little more battling...?" She suggested.

Kirito laced their hands together, saying, "Anything you wish honey."


End file.
